Charles XVIII
Charles Leopold August Henry Maria Miguel, King of Aloria from 2089-2099, from the House of Battenburg, was born on 12 December 2070, at the Royal Palace of Charleston in Aloria. He was the eldest son of Crown Prince Charles Alexander, and thus the grandson of king Charles XVII. His mother was Elizabeth of Hohenstauffen. He was the last king of Aloria. After a military coup in 2098 he went into exile with the rest of the Royal Family, and several hours later, on 1 January 2099, the monarchy in Aloria was abolishedand the repulbic was installed. Childhood and youth Charles XVIII was a strong and healthy boy, although very shy, he excelled in his studies and had a strong taste for history, geography, and astronomy. He also enjoyed working on locks, hunting with his grandfather Charles XVII. Upon the death of his father, who died of tuberculosis on 13 April 2077, the six-year-old Charles became the new Crown Prince. The young Charles from then was raised by several very conservative advisors, mostly bishops and high army officers, who educated him in the traditional conservative way, just like his ancestors before him. Herefor, he became estranged from what was going on in Aloria at that time, as he was only surrounded by the upperclass. At age 16, he joined the Royal Navy, making Lieutenant. He later joind the Royal Airforce for several months. Charles undertook his first military flight in 2088 and later gained his pilot's licence. King of Aloria When Charles XVIII succeeded to the throne in 2089, he was 18. He had an enormous responsibility, as the government was deeply in debt, and resentment towards 'despotic' monarchy was on the rise. Charles also felt woefully unqualified for the job. While none doubted Charles's intellectual ability to rule Aloria, it was quite clear that, although raised as the Crownprince since 2077, he was indecisive and not firm enough to rule. Charles therefore appointed an experienced advisor, his mother Archducess Elizabeth who, until her death in 2093, would take charge on many important decisions, as she also did with the previous king, her ill father-in-law Charles XVII. The Archduchess was very unpopular amongst the Alorians, and the people blaming her for being a too much religious-conservative influence on the new king. After her dead, the Archbishop of Ultran became his most important advisor. Marriage On 28 May 2091, at the age of twenty, Louis-Auguste married his sixteen-year-old cousin Theresa of Concord, the youngest daughter of the Duke of Concord, one of the most powerful nobles of Aloria. The marriage was initially amiable but distant. Queen Theresa still remained childless after five years of marriage, much to her distress. Medical examinations found nothing wrong physically with Charles, and the lack of any gaps in his hunting journal indicate that he never underwent any sort of procedure or surgery. Finally, their first and only child, Crown Prince Charles Ferdinand, was born on May 14th, 2097. But the marriage was never a succes. The king and queen lived mostly apart from eachother, and over the years it even become clear that they even didn't like eachother, as it was an arranged marriage, and not a marriage born out of love. At first, Queen Theresa was slightly popular among the Alorians. She was a young, beautiful queen, and many adored her. But this was for a very short time. Over the years, she spend more and more amounts of money on clothes, jewelry, lush parties and foreign trips, while the majority of the Alorian citizens was living in poverty. Alorian-Rutanian War The 2080s, a diplomatic dispute escalated, when his grandfather, late king Charles XVIII, try to reclaim Rutanian Bozarland, as he consider it as a part of Aloria. After an Alorian merchandise ship was accidentaly shot by Rutanian navy. The Rutanians thought this was an Alorian battle ship try to get into Rutanian waters. This miscommunication led to the Alorian-Rutanian War. Aloria immediately respond with a counter attack, by bombing the Rutanian naval base. After this, Rutania responded with the invasion of Bozarland, and Charles declared war to Rutania in November 2094, a war Aloria couldn't affort, since the treasury was empty and the army wasn't been modernized for decades. After three months, Aloria lost the war, and was forced to withdraw from Bozarland. 200.00 Alorian soldiers found their dead in this war, and the nation was facing bankruptcy. In the wake of the Alorian-Rutanian War, the monarchy was seen by some to be an obstacle to modernization and economic growth. Liberals called both for greater regional autonomy. The nation was nearing bankruptcy and outlays outpaced income. Besides that, the weak king was too much under the influence of his mentors, some highly conservative bishops. The influence of the mighty Church caused the absence of the many liberal reforms Aloria needed so much at that moment. Economical crisis Radical financial reforms by Prime Minister Gordonstone and Minister of Finance Herbert angered the nobles and were blocked by the Senate who insisted that the King did not have the legal right to levy new taxes. So Gordonstone was dismissed in September 2095 and Herbert resigned in October 2095 to be replaced by James Neville. Neville proceeded with a policy of taking out large international loans instead of raising taxes. When this policy failed miserably, Charles dismissed him, and replaced him in 2096 with Rutherford Robertson, who increased public spending to 'buy' the country's way out of debt. Again this failed, so Charles convoked the Senate in May 2097 to discuss a revolutionary new fiscal reform proposed by Neville. When the nobles were told the extent of the debt, they were shocked into rejecting the plan. This negative turn of events signaled to Charles that he had lost the ability to rule as an absolute monarch, and he fell into depression. By the late 2090s, the Kings's control of domestic politics had started to deteriorate in the face of crises with the Church, the Army and the Landholders. The Republican movement slowly gained strength. The dominant classes no longer needed the kingdom to protect their interests. On December 1, 2097, Charles dismissed the entire government and assumed full executive powers to quash the violent uprising. But this act only made the situation worse. The country was on the edge of a civil war outbreak. The country was now in an unbearable political crisis: cabinet-switches occured almost every month (from December 2097 until June 2098 there were 14 differenct governments). Meanwhile, the King lost support of the army. Military coup Finally, a military coup d'etat on June 2, 2098 took place, under commandement of general Washington Ford. The king couldn't do anything else, then to support the new military junta, since the majority of the army stood behind the revolting generals. Later in the day, he went to the Ministry of Defence, where all coup leaders were gathered, and had a discussion with Ford and with leading generals. He agreed to concede to the military demands and swear the new regime in only when the junta agreed to include a number of civilian politicians, with a Royalist nominee, Wilberforce Gladstone, as Prime Minister. Charles always maintained that his brief co-operation with the coup was a tactical move that he hoped would allow him to organize a counter-coup. From the outset, the relationship between Charles and the notorious military regime was an uneasy one. The generals were not willing to share power with anyone, whereas the young king, like his grandfather before him, was used to playing an active role in politics and would never consent to being a mere figurehead, especially in a military administration. The King's countercoup The King finally decided to launch his counter-coup on December 29, 2098. Since Charleston was effectively in the hands of the junta militarily, Charles decided to fly to the northern city of Ultran. There he hoped to be among troops loyal only to him, since the mainly conservative province of Ultran was always a huge supporter of the monarchy. The vague plan he and his advisors had conceived was to form a unit that would advance to Ultran and take it. Charles planned to install an alternative administration there. International recognition, which he believed to be forthcoming, as well as internal pressure from the fact that Aloria would have been split in two governments would, the King hoped, force the junta to resign, leaving the field clear for him to return triumphant to Charleston. However, the King's plans were overly bureaucratic, naïvely supposing that orders from a commanding General would automatically be followed. Further, the King was obsessive about avoiding "bloodshed" even where the junta would be the attacker. In the circumstances, rather than the King managing to put together a force and advancing on Ultran, middle-ranking pro-junta officers neutralised and arrested his Royalist generals and took command of their units, which subsequently put together a force advancing on Ultran to arrest the King. The junta ridiculed the King by announcing the he was hiding "from village to village". Realising that the countercoup had failed, Charles surrendered on New Years Eve 2098. He was arrested and brought back to Charleston, were he was grounded in the Royal Palace. With the failure of this countercoup, the hope to restore the power of the monarchy was gone. In the early morning hours of January 1, 2099 the Republic was declared, and the King boarded the Royal plane together with Queen Theresa and their son, and they fled to Dundorf, were they went into exile. Life in exile The Royal Family fled to Dundorf, were they were granted assylum by the Dundorfian government. There, they've settled down in a large rural estate in Oderveld. While leaving Aloria, Queen Theresa was managed to take an enormous amount of jewelry and treasures with her, wich she never returned. After her death, most of the family jewelry was auctioned by her son. Shortly after their arrival in Dundorf, Charles and Theresa went separated in exile; it was an arranged marriage, following a long tradition of royal families, even if some observers alleged that she was really fascinated by her husband. Except for public appearances, Charles and Theresa generally lived apart. Theresa passed away in 2117, and five years later he re-married with the 20-years younger Ghislaine Sommerfeld. Because this was a morganatic marriage (Ghislaine was a commoner), their children became no heirs to the fallen Alorian throne. Their children Alexander (2123), Marie-Christine (2125) and Marie-Elizabeth (2129)gained only the titles Count and Countesses of Battenburg. The Royal mansion in Oderveld became a cultural centre under the auspices of Charles, who cultivated the friendship of numerous prominent writers, philosophers, scientists, mathematicians, and doctors. Charles also traveled extensively all over the world. Following his son's heart surgery during his childhood, Charles became very interested in medicine, and, in particular, in cardiology, and founded a Cardiological Foundation which, through its work, has saved the lives of several thousand people. Charles pursued his interests in intellectual and scientific spheres with great energy and passion. On 29 January 2099 the newly installed Alorian government, the High Council called for a popular referendum on whether Aloria would be a monarchy or a republic. On-the-ground campaigning on the ex-King's behalf was carried out by local monarchists. The vote to retain the monarchy was only about 28%, with almost 72% of the electorate voting for the permanent abolition of the Monarchy and the establishment of a parliamentary democracy. Although the Royal Family was allowed by the new Republican government to return to Aloria, Charles never returned. In 2112, Charles then sued Aloria at the Supreme Court, claiming ownership of lands worth in excess of €50 billion. He never won the case. The ex-king lived the rest of his live traveling around the world. He died of cancer on 10 March 2149, at the age of 78.